The United Kingdom has stopped the recruitment of skilled health and social care workers from Nigeria and 53 other countries across the world.

In its updated “Code of Practice For The International Recruitment of Health and Social Care Personnel In England,” the British government placed 37 other African countries on its red list which was based on the World Health Organisation Workforce Support and Safeguard List, 2023.

The policy was released last month.

It, however, said the list does not prevent individual health and social care personnel from independently applying for work in the country.

The other affected countries are Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos, and Lesotho.

Others are Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Micronesia, Mozambique, Niger, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Tanzania, Uganda, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The move followed concern by Nigerians over the mass exodus of skilled and experienced health and social workers from the country.

A bill seeking to stop medical doctors, dentists, nurses and other health from leaving the country to work in Europe and other parts of the world for at least five years scaled the second reading in the House of Representatives a few weeks ago.

The updated UK policy read: “There must be no active international recruitment from countries on the red list unless there is an explicit government-to-government agreement to support managed recruitment activities that are undertaken strictly in compliance with the terms of that agreement.”